Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify.  And the third day he will rise again."

Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him.  And He said to her, "What do you wish?"  She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom."  But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask.  Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"  They said to Him, "We are able."  So He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father."  And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers.  But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.  Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.  And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

- Matthew 20:17-28

 In yesterday's reading, Jesus gave a parable about those who labor for the Kingdom:  "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.  And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.'  So they went.  Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise.  And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day?'  They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.'  He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.'  So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.'  And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius.  But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius.  And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.'  But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong.  Did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what is yours and go your way.  I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.  Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?  Or is your eye evil because I am good?'  So the last will be first, and the first last.  For many are called, but few chosen."

 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify.  And the third day he will rise again."  This is the third prediction Jesus has made of His Passion.  My study bible says that His repeated predictions were meant to encourage and strengthen the disciples for the terrifying events they are going to face.  According to Theophan, it is as if Christ were saying to them, "Think on all these [words and miracles], so that when you see me hanging on the Cross, you will not imagine that I am suffering because I am powerless to do otherwise."  This time, He begins on His way to Jerusalem.

Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him.  And He said to her, "What do you wish?"  She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom."  But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask.  Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"  They said to Him, "We are able."  So He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father."   My study bible says that the quest for temporal power and glory is unfitting for a disciple, and it also shows an earthly misunderstanding of the Kingdom of God.  Matthew tells us that it is the mother of Zebedee's sons (John and James) who requested the honor.  But John's and James' own involvement is given in Jesus' statement, as He addresses them in the plural here, and in Mark 10:35.  As He is on His way to Jerusalem, the place where the Messiah must come to claim His Kingdom, they perhaps expect an imminent worldly assumption of power.   Jesus calls His Crucifixion a cup and His death a baptism.  These words have great significance.  The Cross is a cup because He drank it willingly (Hebrews 12:2), and it is His commitment to humankind, for whom He willingly suffers for love.  His death is baptism, because He is completely immersed in it, yet it cleansed the world (Romans 6:3-6), just as our baptism is meant to be a death to the old life which awakens us to the new life of His Kingdom.  Jesus' prophecy of John and James participating in the same cup and baptism shows the life of persecution and martyrdom they would lead after Pentecost.  My study bible adds that Christ declaring that the places of honor in the Kingdom are not His to give doesn't mean that He is lacking in authority.  What it means rather is that they are not His to give arbitrarily.  Those places will be given by Christ to those for whom God has prepared them.  St. John Chrysostom teaches that, with regard to sitting as equals on the right and left hand of Christ in His Kingdom, no one could possibly occupy such a position.  But with regard to the highest places any human being can occupy, those are given in the tradition of the Church to the Virgin Mary (most blessed among women - Luke 1:28) and to John the Baptist (greatest born of women - 11:11).

And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers.  But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.  Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.  And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."  Jesus first uses the rulers of the Gentiles as an example of the hunger for power, whom the disciples already consider an abomination (such as ruthless rulers like Herod the Great).   His way of greatness is through service.  He then uses Himself as example by which they should measure greatness or leadership ("first among you").  Christ serves although He is Lord of all.   For many is an Aramaic expression meaning "for all."

As Jesus is heading to Jerusalem, despite His several predictions of His suffering, death, and Resurrection, the disciples clearly have no idea what to expect.  In terms of their requests regarding "greatness" in His Kingdom (see also this earlier reading), it would seem that it is unthinkable to them that the Messiah will not manifest a worldly kingdom in Jerusalem.  Our first understanding of the position of the disciples is their own mindset which comes of traditional expectations about the Messiah.  Despite having been His disciples, they as yet are unprepared for what His sacrifice on the Cross will mean.  It won't be until after Pentecost, and at the sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father, that they begin to fully understand the things that Jesus has taught them.  In accordance with their expectations, they begin to wonder, as the approach to Jerusalem begins, what their places will be in the Kingdom which they expect.  As such, the mother of the Zebedee brothers John and James asks for the highest positions for her sons.  But Jesus is not through with teaching the disciples what they need to know for the life that is ahead of them in His service.  In many of our recent readings in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus has been emphasizing service, and the need of the disciples both for humility and for care of the "littlest ones," the humble in the Church.  It has all been an extraordinary teaching about power and its use, and the nature of the power of the Kingdom which He will establish through His Church.  Standing a worldly notion of power on its head, Jesus contrasts the power-hungry Gentile rulers to those who will be in positions of leadership in His Kingdom, those who would be great and first.  His image for the great is as a servant, and for the first among them is as slave.  We must note that He is addressing the group about how to recognize the qualities in those whom they would call great among them, and whom they would call first.  Jesus establishes what it is to rule with God-like power.  It is to exercise authority by service, by sacrifice, by the rule of love.  It is the one commandment with which He will leave us (John 13:34, 15:12), and in which is found all the Law and the Prophets (22:37-40).  St. Paul tells us that we are to bear one another's burdens, in order to practice this love.   The cup which we drink -- which we do in remembrance of Him -- is one which must be drunk in true fellowship.  Jesus sets the tone in His purpose in going to Jerusalem to serve all of humankind via sacrifice and by the great love of God, so that we understand the ground upon which we stand and the life in which we are invited to participate.  Let us find our own ways to dwell within it and remember how He has taught His disciples.